HAIKU DIALOGUE – ink

Let’s talk about haiku! You are invited to respond to photographs – I will share a photo each week as a prompt for your writing…

Submit an original unpublished poem via our Contact Form by Saturday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence.

Please note that by submitting, you agree that your work may appear in the column – neither acknowledgment nor acceptance emails will be sent. All communication about the poems that are posted in the column will be added as blog comments.

Poems will be selected based on the potential to generate discussion – these poems will be the best to talk about…

next week’s theme:

This is the final photo prompt for now – next week we will begin a new series… stay tuned!

The deadline for this theme is midnight Pacific Time, Saturday 27 July 2019.

I look forward to reading your submissions.

HAIKU DIALOGUE: ink

Here are my selections for this week:

dark matter my mother says not to worry

Adrian Bouter

paint it black
on a white canvas
night winter sky

Agus Maulana Sunjaya
Tangerang, Indonesia

fickle breeze and
dappled shade… the artist tweaks
her palette again

Al Gallia
Lafayette, Louisiana USA

image emerges
from the shadows –
flight toward infinity

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

summer room
a locker key glistens
with its secrets

Alan Summers
Chippenham, Wiltshire, England

cities flicker
trying to mirror starlight…
night rolls in

Alfred Booth
France

drunk painter –
one more work
of contemporary art

Aljoša Vuković
Šibenik, Croatia

dark period…
technical tests
of depression

Angiola Inglese

palette knife
an attempt to gauge the depth
of his eyes

Anitha Varma

painting mindscape
with
your colours

Anjali Warhadpande

blue afternoon –
the Rolling Stones sing
paint it black

anna maria domburg-sancristoforo

paint roller –
how my palm print
fits into grandpa’s

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

sea glass
the glow between
squalls

B Shropshire
TX, USA

abstract
off to lunch for a
brighter perspective

Barbara Tate

take the sludgy paint
shove and spread it around
my chunky verses

Bruce Jewett

silkscreen
before the impression
has set

C.R. Harper

closed grisaille
the sadness
behind a smile

carol jones
Wales

sumi-e course
those dark spots
on his lung

cezar-florin ciobîcă

adoption
re-coloring
a future

Claire Vogel Camargo

edgy night wind
stops and starts –
winter’s chill deepens

clysta seney

art nouveau –
so little I can hide
with makeup

Cristina Angelescu
Romania

after funeral
changing photos
in black & white

Cristina Apetrei

deleted in draft
all those words
we won’t regret

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA

Mother’s face
etched in linoleum
birthday gift

dianne moritz

a bright future
a four-year-old son
painting all black

Dubravka Šćukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

black on white –
jasmine blossoms
into the night

Elisa Allo
Zug, Switzerland

mayday! mayday!
from my atelier straight to
delivery room

Franjo Ordanić

a thin mist
ahead of the coming storm
battleship grey

Garry Eaton

broken shell:
nostalgia sinks into the shadows

Giuliana Ravaglia

out of darkness
a rogue thought
breaks into words

Greer Woodward

prognosis
she paints her feelings
in black and white

Hifsa Ashraf

roller primed
for a first print –
Bashō’s thousand edits

Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia

writer’s block
my brain a dark canvas
of wordless thoughts

Jackie Chou
Pico Rivera CA USA

red hilt and ink of
black white brown and more
all have the same colored blood

Jo El
North Carolina

black day
her dear john letter
starts to blur

john hawkhead

museum art –
the child plays with
a plastic bottle

Justin Orlando
Charlottesville, VA

red handled roller
in the sky not yet
a touch of pink

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, CA

artist’s attempt
new painting techniques
ebony flash

Kathleen Mazurowski

… colouring
vibgyor seems
to fit my space

Lakshmi Iyer

ink study
all I see
when I close my eyes

Laurie Greer
Washington DC

diver in a hunt
octopus draws with ink
on the sea

Ljiljana Dobra
Sibenik Croatia

ink spots…
the undefined contours
of my fears

macchie d’inchiostro … i contorni indefiniti / delle mie paure

Lucia Cardillo

antique printing block
Cinderella’s dress
fills with moonlight

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

unsure strokes
among wild thoughts
an unsolved riddle

Luisa Santoro

canvas of life
a splash of equanimity
to see me through

Madhuri Pillai

deep dark
secrets
slowly revealed

Margaret Walker

After musical
The theatre once more has
To return to black

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

in front of Rothko
a toddler standing
on her head

Marietta McGregor

stippled the canvas and the painter

Marilyn Ashbaugh

black canvas
she dips her fingers into glitter
and creates stars

Marisa Fazio

fading memories
scrape the canvas
black and blue

Mark Gilbert
UK

highlights and shadows
the chiaroscuro life
of my mother

Mark Meyer

ink brush
on the night jar’s wing
a sliver of light

Martha Magenta

Halloween
the boy uses up
all the black paint

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

deep in your eyes
exploring all shades
of the black

Nadejda Kostadinova
Bulgaria

Rorschach test
she sees a dragon
in the clouds

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

charcoal portrait
I smear my hands
all over your face

nancy liddle
broken hill, australia

losing out in
finding a particular speck
night sky

Neelam Dadhwal
Chandigarh, India

black…
paint in canvas
and also my hair

Neni Rusliana
Bandung, Indonesia

how blotting paper
soaks up ink
evening fog

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

black and white –
I remember the colours
in the old photo

Pasquale Asprea

etaoinshrdlu
the printer’s devil
inks the type

Paul Geiger
Sebastopol CA

cross-legged
I touch all the colors
in the night sky

Pris Campbell

painting on canvas
day and night
merge into one

Radhamani sarma

indoor repair works
her way to pronounce
miscarriage

Radostina Dragostinova
Bulgaria

tunnel vision
colour coding my world
in black and white

Rashmi Vesa

brush and ink
dancing the world
onto paper

Rehn Kovacic

the color of memories indelible ink

Rich Schilling
Webster Groves, MO

out of the cellar
my wax drawing
alive with fish

Robert Kingston
Essex, UK

dark matter –
the coming and going
of melancholy

robyn brooks
usa

India ink again
rolls out the soul’s pigment
lightfast absence

Ron Scully

artist adds colors
to a shady background
unfinished life

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

loneliness…
nothing to paint
except black

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

fresh coat of paint
on memories –
from long time ago

SD Desai

Rorschach inkblot
lovely butterfly wings
I lie about

Sanela Pliško

my teenager
paints her pink bedroom walls
black

Sari Grandstaff

layer after layer
covering the present –
black print of past

Saša Slavković
Slovenia

receding shadows the night layers to a footnote

Shloka Shankar

artist’s proof
my john hancock
drawkcab

simonj
UK

new wife
the traditionally white room becomes pink

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

darkness on the canvas
trying to walk away
from myself

Stephen A. Peters

unfinished work
the wavering vision
of yes and no

Steve Tabb
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

paint cans and rollers
redesigning my space
for this new dance

Susan Bonk Plumridge
London, Canada

rehab painting day
the brain-injured boy draws
his first miracle

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA USA

petrichor…
black-and-white photos
of mom and dad

Theresa A. Cancro
Wilmington, Delaware USA

daughter’s first painting
in place of signature
her fingerprints

Tomislav Sjekloća
Cetinje, Montenegro

Christmas eve
hobo paints a pretty
fireplace

Tsanka Shishkova

teaching cursive…
the writing is no longer
on the wall

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

dark chocolate
all the goodness beneath
dad’s firmness

Vandana Parashar

paint on his face
my nephew’s laughter
colours the walls

Veronika Zora Novak

the palmist circles
her mount of moon
a haiku

Vicki Miko

in the studio
question for the question –
black is ok

Zdenka Mlinar
Zagreb, Croatia

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019).

Hello Laura. If this was intended for next week’s photo prompt, you just need to click on the red “contact form” in the above second paragraph before midnight today and it will go to Kathy for consideration.

Thank you so much Kathy for including mine among these fine haiku inkterpretations. And thank you Alan for commentary! I too very much look forward each week to trying my hand at haiku and reading everyone’s.

Dear, Dear, Marietta McGregor…
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Within the wallow of all the dark, of all the prose, a haiku of merit!
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You nailed it with unexpected whimsy, and with a perfect foil; the Rothko reference.
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You are a prize, and a gift to the haiku community!
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in front of Rothko
a toddler standing
on her head

Dear Margie,
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Kathy runs a great feature, where people can discuss and comment on haiku and it’s really helpful isn’t it? 🙂
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Most weeks I try to post a themed commentary, and this week it’s The Five Quarters of Haiku:https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2019/07/24/haiku-dialogue-ink/#comment-105051
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After musical
The theatre once more has
To return to black
.
Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA
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I love this phrase!!!
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“The theatre once more has to return to black”
.
aka
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The theatre once more has
To return to black
.
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It takes me back to childhood and big thick black closing curtains where actors might come out for another run of applause, and then simply ‘vanish’. 🙂
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It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a musical. The last one was Terje Isungset’s version of The Emperor’s New Clothes, with the Emperor as a kind of British Prime Minister closely similar to Tony Blair. I remember we bumped into the actor and praised his work. It was an incredible production!

Another great week, and I learned several new words, not being an artist.
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highlights and shadows
the chiaroscuro life
of my mother
.
Mark Meyer
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The story and feeling here intrigued me.
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the color of memories indelible ink
.
Rich Schilling
.
A lot packed into one short line!
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new wife
the traditionally white room
becomes pink
.
Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia
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I enjoy hearing cultural traditions that are new to me. Is there some rebellion against the norm here?
.
blue afternoon-
the Rolling Stones sing
paint it black
.
anna maria domburg-sancristoforo
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This lyrical haiku lifted the blues.
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“…octopus draws with ink…” by Ljiljana
Dobra was a clever use of the prompt.
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And Alan Summers’ “…locker key glistens…” immediately reminded me of reading Nancy Drew mysteries when young.

Thanks! 🙂
.
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deleted in draft
all those words
we won’t regret
.
Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA
.
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This reminds me of the old haiku email forums, where I tried to suggest that strong feelings be best put into draft and not sent a second later with regret. 🙂
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If something or someone deeply upsets me I certainly consider a draft email with no email address inserted, and delete it a few moments later, having got whatever it was out of my system.
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Sometimes to have no regrets, because we didn’t rush our words, is something to envy very much. Thanks for such a strong verse.

Amid all the darkness I appreciated these two humourous senryu (?) – Aljoša Vuković‘s ‘drunk painter – / one more work / of contemporary art’ and Barbara Tate‘s ‘abstract / off to lunch for a / brighter perspective’. Thanks KJ.

this week we enjoy photos, night, weather, colour & shade, art & artists, writing & editing, words & letters, birth, health, hands, ink & paint of course… thank you all as always – we will be welcoming Craig Kittner back as guest editor for the month of August… & we are actively seeking new guest editors to join the team – please consider this & send a note on the contact form if you are interested in learning more!

Dear kj munro –
My apologies for my late reply…I’ve been out of the loop/ loopy with summer allergies and a bit of melancholy…It is the anniversary of my grandmother’s passing and my late aunt’s birthday…
Thank you, so much, for publishing my haiku.
Congratulations to this stellar group of poets. Thank you all! robyn

I can’t remember the last time I had a locker key, and it would have been for some changing locker (swim kit or such). I think it was Glasgow in 1994 when I was taken along to the sauna, steam rooms, and those bitter cold pools!
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I did know someone with a Swiss Bank Account, but he said he was just holding it open with about ten dollars. 🙂
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So do you have a locker room stashed away, maybe somewhere in an accessible part of the Welsh Black Mountains? 🙂

Hi Kathy,
I loved the amount of things on the fringe of the photo! In fact Call of the Page held a shahai convo available to our course students touching on this aspect.
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I wonder whose locker key it was? 🙂

If anyone is or was in certain types of health and safety ‘jobs’ you will know we quarter each room, and know what’s beyond, what is ‘outside’. Doors or fire exits may be locked or jammed, and it’s good to know that and any hazards right outside.
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With haiku, if we approach a picture (photograph or painting), or a room, it’s not a bad idea to look at each corner of the room, all four of them, plus that ‘fifth’ quarter, the area or areas ‘outside’ or ‘behind’ or ‘beyond’.
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Any ekphrastic writing might directly be about the artwork in question, or the aspects ‘behind’ the work, whether about the artist or what is left out or ‘behind’. The 5th Quarter is always as valid as any visible or not-so-visible corner, or quarter of a room.
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The photograph has several corners! There is the white board, there are the ‘corners’ of each swipe of the inking device, there is the corners of the room with the blue floor, and of course each floorboard is bound by four corners.
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And of course there is always something lurking or lying deep inside one corner of something at least, whether photograph (think Bladerunner) or any of the ‘framed’ objects/subjects or images.
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Then there is the corners of the photograph itself!
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Beware flashing lights/images!
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Blade Runner Enhance Scene
“A photograph acts as interface to a 3D space”http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/clips/bladeRunner3DphotoH264.mov/view
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Beware flashing lights/images!
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And of course not everything is visible or present in a corner, perhaps the sharp angle of a corner points to something else, in us as much as ‘outside’?
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There was certainly a lot of mention about ‘black’ and ‘dark’ including this wonderful monoku:
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dark matter my mother says not to worry
.
Adrian Bouter
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A parent is a parent regardless how old the ‘toddler’ is, whether they are six years or sixty years old! The dark matter might be one of the building blocks of the universe, or one of the disturbing dark matters that too many people in power (crime, politics, corporate activities) engage in, at our own peril, rather than their peril. A mother protects, as they can only do so much, and it would wrong to subject a child to the hidden wrongs of the human world all at once.
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Whole cities flicker with Alfred Booth’s haiku! This author successfully goes beyond one ‘thing’ to many things, but all them, we think, are under night aka nightfall.
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closed grisaille
the sadness
behind a smile
.
carol jones
Wales
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Fantastic use of a word for an art technique many of us may have seen sometime, but not realised the name of it. Grisaille is a method of painting in grey monochrome, typically to imitate sculptures.
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Great use of consonance with the ’s’ letters in almost every word!
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sumi-e course
those dark spots
on his lung
.
cezar-florin ciobîcă
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A fantastic use of juxtaposition that projects the reader in a participatory trajectory! This is rich in context and psychological inner journey.
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adoption
re-coloring
a future
.
Claire Vogel Camargo
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Adoption or fostering is a gift to a child bereft of family, and of care and diligence, and love. Wonderful poem.
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art nouveau –
so little I can hide
with makeup
.
Cristina Angelescu
Romania
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Wow, what a phrase, and what a reaction or juxtaposition to the opening line. Very strong poem.
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As we know, Matsuo Bashō spent years editing his haikai verses, especially those in his famous haibun. A haiku can be a poem of a thousand cuts, and if anyone says we shouldn’t edit a haiku e ever, or hardly at all, point them to Bashō and his most famous Narrow Road to the Far North haibun!
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black day
her dear john letter
starts to blur
.
john hawkhead
.
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I remember a friend reading tens of thousands of letters for a book, and many of them would have been letters about family members passing away from piracy on the open seas or several world wars from medieval times to the mid-20th century. I’m sure other letters were about romantic losses of the heart as well.
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ink study
all I see
when I close my eyes
.
Laurie Greer
Washington DC
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Intriguing! I know if I’ve looked into something bright (external source) and then close my eyes I have a lot of inkblots and my own personal rorschach test. And for those with intricate imaginations, doubtless you see whole countries of the mind unfold.
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antique printing block
Cinderella’s dress
fills with moonlight
.
Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK
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So many of us have had a Cinderella moment, when midnight might reduce our realised dreams to those of rags and tears. I like how I can imagine a printing block reproducing the tale of Cinderella, and through the window come moonbeams full of promise, and a private telling of a story.
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deep dark
secrets
slowly revealed
.
Margaret Walker
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Ah, deep dark, and deep dark secrets, slowly revealed by dawn or another agent? An intriguingly mysterious poem.
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in front of Rothko
a toddler standing
on her head
.
Marietta McGregor
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The unrestrained honesty of a child! And a great way of fully enjoying a painting! A wonderful poem!!! 🙂
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stippled the canvas and the painter
.
Marilyn Ashbaugh
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A simple monoku but it has so much inside it. No corner is left unturned.
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fading memories
scrape the canvas
black and blue
.
Mark Gilbert
UK
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Sadly whenever I read ‘black and blue’ it takes me back to people I’ve met who have been attacked, at home or in the street. The strong verb choice of ‘scrape’ counters and compliments the dual action of ‘fading’. A poignant verse.
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The language used by the operators of Linotype machines. A private insiders’ joke which would be a devil of a job to understand spoken or “set up”. 🙂
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cross-legged
I touch all the colors
in the night sky
.
Pris Campbell
.
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A beautifully expansive poem!
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Only last night I was outside watching the sky lit up twice a second by lightning, glorious!
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painting on canvas
day and night
merge into one
.
Radhamani sarma
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Ah, the two corners of the 24 hours period, with the ‘other’ two corners of twilight hours at dawn and dusk. 🙂
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my teenager
paints her pink bedroom walls
black
.
Sari Grandstaff
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I’ve seen photos of people having painted walls and ceiling in black and it was nearly impossible to find any furniture, or the door! It’s a great challenge to transform the entirety of a room to black, so congratulations. I bet more than five quarters were covered! 🙂
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receding shadows the night layers to a footnote
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Shloka Shankar
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I love that ‘the night layers to a footnote’! The whole monoku is a beauty!!!
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artist’s proof
my john hancock
drawkcab
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simonj
UK
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I remember a few comedy actors or comedians who were practiced at “The language of speaking backwards.” Perhaps all politicians should have to do this, and then perhaps the sheer overwhelming amount of talk for talk’s sake might reduce to an acceptable and practical level.
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unfinished work
the wavering vision
of yes and no
.
Steve Tabb
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
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Great last two lines!
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paint cans and rollers
redesigning my space
for this new dance
.
Susan Bonk Plumridge
London, Canada
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Just love the musicality of the opening line! And the whole poem works beautifully! 🙂
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rehab painting day
the brain-injured boy draws
his first miracle
.
Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA USA
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Outstanding! I’ve worked with adults at a head injury hospital unit. Painting and also writing haiku really helps.
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A beautifully uplifting and crafted poem.
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I wish I could comment on more haiku, but these hours were a rare off-duty time, even on a day off!
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Alan Summers
Call of the Page

Many thanks, Alan, for seeing into my haiku, and your comments. I wasn’t sure it would be understood if one equates lino cutting with editing haiku, but as a scraperboard artist and lino printer, it was easy for me to see the connection. Both need ‘editing’ (adding to/cutting out) to achieve their final form.

Dear Ingrid,
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roller primed
for a first print –
Bashō’s thousand edits
.
Ingrid Baluchi
Ohrid, Macedonia
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I love linocuts, and I jointly held a few exhibitions with Trevor Hadrell, where he designed cocktail recipes in linocut for the Floating Nightclub Exhibition, as well as for my lime quarter haiku etc…https://area17.blogspot.com/2013/03/lime-quarter-sixth-day-haiku-poetry.html
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I’m astonished how you linocut artists can do either small works so accurately, or massive city scenes!

Alan,
Thank you for your comment on mine. So many you could have chosen. KJM certainly gives us plenty to submerge ourselves in.
Thank you for the five corner tip.
Love your entry into your analysis through your own turning keys ku.
Best wishes
Rob

out of the cellar
my wax drawing
alive with fish
.
Robert Kingston
Essex, UK
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There were a lot of other good haiku, and I hope others will commentate on them, as this webpage is all about haiku dialogue, and I look forward to that.
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I systematically went through each haiku, and looked for certain things, including a mention of a room, or something that might have what we perceive to have four corners or four quarters.
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I really liked the suggestion of the vividness and sheen of the wax crayon drawing of fish that were rising from the cellar just as salmon rise when the rivers are in spate.
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But also ‘cellar’ can additionally be metaphorical or symbolic of something within us that is good and wishes to surface.
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It certainly contains a lot of resonance as I’ve read the haiku many times now, and it increases in its ‘movement’ as a haiku.

John,
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.
black day
her dear john letter
starts to blur
.
john hawkhead
.
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My middle is John, on both occasions, although I’m addressed by two different ‘given’ names. The poem feels so sad, and I worry what the black day was, and if things ever got back to some level of happiness or contentment.
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Moon is also a beautiful braille system and Felix Dennis had this made into poetry books when he was doing his wine cellar tour by helicopter. Both systems as communication must be amazing, to physically have words move under our fingertips, even in utter darkness, metaphorically and literally.
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My favourite haunts are The Angel and The Rivo, and the latter is, as you might know, around five or six minutes from the train station if Siemens take you there one fine day. And the ‘Nam station cafe is pretty darned fine too! 🙂
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warmest regards,
Alan

Thanks Alan,for your comments on my poem and on all the others. Somehow it all remains kind of incomplete without your commentary that we look forward to each week. Thanks kj for wonderful pictures every week and for including my poems. I thoroughly enjoy this blog. Best,arvinder

Alan
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Claire Camargo has pulled a deep meaningful haiku from the abstraction of the picture.
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Adoption may well bring to mind humans, but to know Claire is to know her devotion to adopting pets, especially dogs, into healthy families.
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Claire’s haiku has enough white space (in all that is dark surrounding it) to allow several reads.
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A seasoned haiku, indeed!
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Jan in Texas

I really enjoyed your haiku!
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cities flicker
trying to mirror starlight…
night rolls in
.
Alfred Booth
France
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just see those star systems we attempt to replicate in soulless office windows though?

Dear Alan –
I hope that it is never too late for a heartfelt and sincere thank you…
Thank you so very much for your kind words about my poem. I have been dealing with the enormous loss of my female elders…trying to sort out my own dark matter. I truly appreciate it.☺️ robyn

Perhaps like Jackie Chou’s
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writer’s block/my brain a dark canvas/of wordless thoughts
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and Laurie Greer’s
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ink study/all I see/when I close my eyes
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I imagined this photo would be difficult to translate into a poem. But none of it! What an amazing variety!
Particularly liked the two above, along with Barbara Tate’s humorous comment on the color black:
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abstract/off to lunch for a /brighter future
.
Adrian Bouter’s comforting
.
dark matter my mother says not to worry
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and recognized something similar in my own childhood in Vandana Parashar’s lovely
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dark chocolate/all the goodness beneath/dad’s firmness.
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What a pleasure to be among you all. Thank you Kathy!

Thanks for choosing mine, Kathy. Wow, what an amazingly rich selection of haiku. I think this is my favourite week so far. I love so many of them. Fascinating to see what has come out of the contemplation of black ink.

Dear Kathy,
Greetings. Thankfully delighted to see my haiku in this colorful forum; My eyes are dipped in so many paintings. Going through one by one all the wonderful word paintings.
with regards
S.RADHAMANI